The Jigsaw War [Doctor Who, Diversion 15]

The Jigsaw War by Eddie Robson

May 2012​

So here is our penultimate diversion for the black and white era! I have to say, after listening to both, I think I made some pretty good choices, but I'll not spoil my review of the second just yet.

I thought that this was a very strong story. The only flaw of it, really, is that it's very short. The Companion Chronicles range is restricted to about 50 minutes normally, so this one has to do a lot of work to pack all of its chronological intricacies into two parts. Accordingly, it is a little dense, but certainly still a worthy story.

The Jigsaw War is basically a character piece for Jamie, who really gets put through the ringer here at the hands of the Side. What gets presented to us at first like another "companion gets captured by suspicious human colonists" plot gets smartly subverted by the end of the audio, where we learn that we were instead witnessing the Side trying to manipulate Jamie by showing him pieces of potential futures out of context. It turns out that Side is one of the "gods" worshipped by the natives, who has been using humanity to "cull the herd" of his own followers to keep them from getting smart ideas about overthrowing him. It's a ghastly plot, and we're glad to see Jamie sort it out at the end.

I notice a strong parallel in this story to The Evil of the Daleks, in two specific ways, both relating to our leading man here. As in that story, Jamie is compelled to complete a series of "trials" or puzzles, and crucially, his relationship with the Doctor is tested. This audio story bookends that televised one pretty well, in my opinion. The Evil of the Daleks is rather early in Troughton's run, and despite the fact that Jamie had been around for a few stories, it was really the first point where he actually becomes the Doctor's companion. He doubts the Doctor and calls him out in that serial more than once, because their relationship is still new. But in this audio, positioned toward the very end of this Doctor's life, we see that even when presented with (false) evidence to the contrary, Jamie trusts the Doctor completely. The love and friendship shown between the two of them in this story is just wonderful.

As another interesting note, even though Side is a slimy bastard who is raising the possibility for his own ends, he does bring forth the interesting question of whether the Doctor always picks the right side when he lands in a new location. I had to think about it for a little while, as I don't think it's really happened up to this point in the series. There was plenty of moral ambiguity where it comes to "sides" in a local conflict back in the Hartnell days, but then, the Doctor didn't really choose a "side" in those instances; more often than not it was a matter of survival for the TARDIS crew, who would simply try to escape. The Troughton era has had a much more stark morality to it (black and white, if you will) and while there are obvious exceptions, it's startling how much things have shifted to place the Doctor in the "hero" role. I'll be interested to keep a closer eye on this question from now on.

For assorted other bits and pieces of commentary: I thought Moran was a nice side character for our lead to play off of, and his repartee with Jamie was tremendous. My favorite moment was the one where he asks Jamie how he and the Doctor 'work', and Jamie's riposte is "However we like!" Also, I was tickled by Moran correctly guessing that the Doctor stole the TARDIS, though neither he nor Jamie knows as much.

This is a very strong audio, for certain. I'd happily recommend it for anyone looking for more Frazer Hines, or Moffat-y time travel plots (with less snogging).

Daughter of the Gods is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 18 March 2021.)

The Space Pirates [Doctor Who, Story 49]

The Space Pirates by Robert Holmes

8 March - 12 April 1969​

Ah, the famous Space Pirates. I'm afraid that in his first season working on the show, Mr. Holmes is 0 for 2. This serial isn't bad per se, but the only memorable thing about it is the music. I kind of wish that haunting, operatic vocal sting belonged to another story.

I think this story was misjudged in the sense of having the TARDIS crew do absolutely nothing of note, with the exception of the Doctor taking 10 minutes to defuse a bomb in the last episode. The setting and side characters, while not bad, simply aren't anywhere near interesting enough to carry the weight in their stead. It's very hard to tell in the reconstruction, but the spaceship sets don't seem particularly impressive, and the story's six-part structure makes its pacing feel glacial at times.

A word must go to the utterly bizarre twist that Madeleine's father has been kept alive for several years inside of a Victorian styled library on the mining planet. It definitely strains credulity that Ms. Issigri wouldn't have noticed all those years, since it appears she's living and working right around the corner.

I do admit, a clever trick is done by transplanting Milo Clancey into this spacefaring setting, because he has basically walked out of an Old West movie. It does highlight that this is basically a train robber story of that period recolored to fit a space-age theme instead. I have to give Clancey's actor some accent props, since I didn't notice until I checked the cast list that he wasn't an American.

The whole thing makes the bizarre call of ending the serial on Jamie going "oh, not again" and then everyone laughing as the credits roll.

😵

I will say that The Space Pirates is not the worst story of this season. Not even close, really. It at least isn't as offensively cliched as The Krotons, and its guest cast is better than The Dominators. It's just that I probably won't remember any of it in a few months' time.

Notably, Episode Six marks the very last of the missing episodes. Although it took me three and a half years to make it to that point, I finally vanquished the recons, and from here on out every single episode will be available. That's a heartening notion at least. John Cura is sorely missed for this season's missing episodes, and I once more have to tip my hat to him, and to the fans who recorded the audio tracks at home, for making this leg of the marathon possible.

The Jigsaw War is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 18 March 2021.)

The Wheel of Ice [Doctor Who, Diversion 14]

The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter

16 August 2012​

This book was published only a few weeks before the release of my last diversion, The Rosemariners, in the late summer of 2012. This is a peculiar time to find a Second Doctor novel. In fact, it was the first featuring that Doctor to be published in 7 years. Come to think of it, there hasn't been one in the 9 years since, either. (Mr. Men does not count.) For all that the Classic Doctors are well-loved by Big Finish, and all manner of audio plays come out every year, Doctor Who's literary world seems to have lost the vibrancy it had during the Wilderness years, though the revival of the Target range has given me a bit of hope.

Despite that, it feels as if BBC Books made a serious effort here to hire one of the most heavy-duty authors they could, and it pays off. I was a little curious how an author with these kinds of hard sci-fi chops would handle the regular cast, since he had not written for the series before, but honestly the Doctor and his companions are handled by this book with aplomb. The Second Doctor feels like himself rather than having out-of-place tinges of the Seventh like I read in Foreign Devils, and has a lot of wonderful and quite Doctor-ish moments. To highlight a few, I enjoyed his retort to Zoe when she asks if too many T-Mat trips as a kid made Boostrap boss Florian so harsh ("Now that, Zoe, is unscientific, unkind, and rather funny."), what seems to be the first use chronologically of the "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", and his grief and sympathy for Arkive's plight ("‘So alone. So alone!’ And he lowered his hands from his face. He had been weeping, she saw, those deep blue eyes brimming with tears. ‘The emptiness – to be alone for nearly half the age of the universe…’")

The book also handles Jamie and Zoe deftly, as instead of the sort of generic companion stand-ins that companions are often reduced to in the books, they are both given parts of the situation to relate to that bring out parts of their background. The Wheel of Ice itself is pretty similar to Zoe's own space station, and there are plenty of Scots onboard, which makes Jamie feel at home. They both also end up doing quite a lot, which is refreshing.

The elements inherited from the TV show aren't the only good things here, of course. The original setting and characters all come off pretty well. Baxter does a marvelous job of explicating the genuine wonder and majesty of the Saturn system, of its rings and moons, and his description of the massive storms on the gas giant itself is simply to die for. All the descriptive prose is very good, which helps this place to come alive. It's funny that a real place in our own solar system comes across as being a little more interesting than most of the alien planets we've seen so far!

The Wheel of Ice itself is lovingly rendered, and the idea of a space station stitched together out of derelict rockets and other junk is a charming one. I can almost feel the chill of the ice tunnels of Mnemosyne as they're described. "Mnemosyne" is a clever name for this moon, of course, being the name of a Greek goddess of memory and loss. It suits the Arkive, the ancient AI which is the last remnant of a long-dead civilization.

The side cast is very good. The whole Laws family are a lovely bunch in varying ways. Luis Reyes is a very sweet fellow, as is poor Dr. Omar. For my money, my favorite is the gruff but lovable Glaswegian robot MMAC, while Florian Hart, our main antagonist, is probably the most ho-hum of the bunch. The last confrontation between her and the Doctor is maybe the most drab part of the book, which is quite unfortunate, since usually the Doctor's chinwags with his opponents are the highlights of stories like these.

There are some pretty awesome interludes in this book too, where the perspective moves away from the regular characters. These include a rather deep and tragic look through the eyes of the Arkive, a shocking account of the Blue Dolls becoming conscious, the path of the allohistorical lure through the lives of the Laws family over the decades, and one spectacularly unlucky Iguanodon that gets beaned in the brain by the lure's fall to earth.

This was a challenging read in many ways, being the longest book I've read for this marathon so far, and with some of the densest plotting, to boot. But it was a rewarding one to finish, and certainly a very strong addition to the Who literary universe. If my review hasn't spoiled too much for you, I'd recommend giving it a shot.

The Space Pirates is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 17 March 2021.)

The Seeds of Death [Doctor Who, Story 48]

The Seeds of Death by Brian Hayle

25 January - 1 March 1969​

I have to say that after The Krotons, this story is a nice change of pace. Despite being longer, it seemed to go by faster, since quite a bit more actually happens. This six-parter has a fairly interesting side cast and a fun, if slightly unimaginative setting. Once more we find Brian Hayles occupied with concerns about overreliance on technology, although my sources tell me that this story actually experienced extensive rewrites at the hands of Terrance Dicks. I find it difficult telling exactly where Hayles' original work ends and Dicks' begins, but at the very least it doesn't seem like the scripting troubles hurt the story.

I'm a little amused that the Doctor and friends insist on calling them Ice Warriors as a species, since the name was come up with in the last serial on account of those ones being frozen in a glacier. They still can't stand heat, so I guess it's still appropriate regardless, even though we already have a name for aliens from Mars: namely, Martians. This term is basically never used for the Ice Warriors, though, and I find that quite funny.

I also note that this story takes place during Zoe's century, but she doesn't seem to be aware of T-Mat and its importance to Earth. Given that The Wheel in Space mentions some people wanted to end the space program, I think it can be assumed that this would have to take place very late in the 21st century, since she's from 2079.

I found Kelly, Radnor, and Phipps quite likable, and I very much enjoyed Osgood's defiance at the start of the serial, but for my money the pride of place goes to Fewsham. Terry Scully is a very expressive actor, and Fewsham's anguish over his own choices visibly plays out throughout these episodes, even when he isn't speaking. At first one is led to be disgusted by his cowardice, but we see shades of grey emerge over the course of the story, a few small acts of defiance ultimately culminating with his brave sacrifice. It's probably the most convincing story arc I have seen for a one-off side character during this marathon so far, and it was genuinely quite refreshing.

The Doctor's remark about the TARDIS not being suitable for short hops definitely tickled me. It certainly will be, sooner or later, and this definitely would have been a pretty short story if it was! Talking of the Doctor, he's looking a little scruffier than he did in the last story, perhaps finally getting long in the tooth? No matter how close we are to the end, Troughton is still playing the part with chaotic energy. I very much enjoyed seeing him walking around draped in wires in the last episode, although I questioned his willingness to incinerate Ice Warriors one after another. His pitying stare at Slaar, who is hissing furiously about being tricked into guiding the Martian fleet into a fatal orbit around the sun, is also quite brilliant. It's a brutal means of dispatching the threat, but it certainly won't be the last time the Doctor does it.

Some praise is also owed to Michael Ferguson for his direction of this story, as I noticed and approved of a few shots and framing devices used in the filming. For example, there are a number of shots where characters are partially framed through semi-opaque surfaces, an interesting trick that I don't recall seeing employed often prior to this point. The shots of the Ice Warrior outside in the T-Mat compound, backlit by the sun, are also very striking.

All in all, it's a quite solid serial. It may grow on me with time, but for now I can definitely say I enjoyed it. Things are going to stay chilly, because I'll be reading The Wheel of Ice next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 16 March 2021.)

Cities Made of Song, 1968

Cities Made of Song, 1968 - Plastic Palace People by Scott Walker

Here, the matter of timing influenced my choice, because next week marks two years since the passing of the legendary Scott Walker.

I'm in a curious position here, because prior to Mr. Walker's passing, I'd never actually heard of him. Born in my own home state of Ohio in 1943, he nevertheless spent most of his life an expatriate in the UK, never quite enjoying the same level of success or renown in our native country. Seeing the outpouring of grief from music fans online, I realized I had clearly missed something special. And sure enough, diving into his music for the first time, I felt as if I'd discovered an entirely different world.

Just at the surface, one could be forgiven for thinking that Scott Walker's voice was his most unique quality. His broad, expressive baritone is certainly unmistakable, capable of delivering any emotion you can imagine. But this is just the vehicle for his music; I'd instead highlight his masterful lyrics, and his skill with illustrating his own inner world over the course of his decades long career.

Plastic Palace People is an example of an earlier original composition of his. Starting the B-side of his second solo album, it emerges at the point in time where Walker was slowly eschewing the cover-heavy track lists of the start of his career and beginning to find his own artistic voice. For all that his covers are still quite attractive (see Jacky at the start of the same album), there's something far more enchanting about this track. It's a simple story about a boy being carried away by a balloon and looking at his little town from above for the first time. Cleverly, his verses play in a sort of magical 3/4, while the titular chorus comes around in a more earthly 4/4. These chorus verses aren't quite as fantastical, instead highlighting the day to day humdrum of a life lived by people whose dreams never become reality.

It's easy to see how letting one's dreams slip away might have been something of a preoccupation for Walker. Thrust into showbusiness at the tender age of 14, he experienced his first brush with fame as a part of the Walker Brothers, a trio of musicians who were not brothers, and none of whom were actually named Walker. Still, their wall-of-sound production style and Scott's dreamy vocals (and looks, at the time) won a massive teenage following. Inevitably, it ended, the naturally shy musician disliking the adulating fans and the intensity of a live touring schedule. Cut loose from the tethers of the Walker Brothers, he released four solo albums in the late 1960s. The first three records were massive hits, and at the peak of his popularity, he even had his own BBC show where he would perform and discuss his music. (It's now mostly been wiped. Go figure.)

When "Scott 4" (1969) inexplicably failed to chart, despite being his best yet, the interest his previous albums had garnered simply guttered out. A disappointed Walker agreed to the direction of his label to "play it safe", releasing a string of largely unflattering cover albums through the 1970s. This period ended with a reunion of the Walker Brothers, an affair which Scott doesn't seem to have been entirely at ease with, but their final record "Nite Flights" offered him the chance to show off his chops. The tracks he contributed to that record had not lost any of the edge he had on "Scott 4" nine years before, catching the notice of many, and lending Walker the chance to release more challenging fare again.

This ultimately culminated in the two masterpieces of his late career, 1995's "Tilt" and 2006's "The Drift". The dark, gothic majesty of these records is a world apart from the easy listening schlock that was forced on him in the 1970s, but sounds curiously of a piece with his earlier solo output. The lush strings of the 1960s are replaced with bleak industrial and ambient sounds, and it suits him magnificently. I won't go on too much, but if I were to recommend any one track by this artist, it would probably be Farmer in the City, which has a depth of emotion to it as fathomless as the sea, and a dark story behind it to boot.

The lesson I learn from reading about Walker's career is the value of persistence, and that even the most personally crushing setbacks can be reversed if you don't lose sight of your dreams. Although he was an exacting and ambitious artist, I never find his work pretentious; he was simply too self-effacing for that. I find his shyness and introversion quite relatable.

I was struck by something in the liner notes of "Scott 2", by producer Jonathan King, who writes, "I have no doubt that many years from now, over a space age dinner of vitamins, [...] he will say: 'Well, the last fifty years have been great fun, but now we must get down to doing something worthwhile.' And he'll mean it." These prescient words seem to have held true to the end. It's a pity that he could never see the simple fact that seems so obvious to his fans: that there will simply never be another artist like Scott Walker.

Thanks for indulging me. We will be looking at The Seeds of Death next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 15 March 2021.)

The Krotons [Doctor Who, Story 47]

The Krotons by Robert Holmes

28 December 1968 - 18 January 1969​

Oh hello there, Mr. Holmes. Knowing the important role of this writer in the future of Doctor Who makes his somewhat unceremonious arrival on the scene a jarring one. Although there are a couple of sparks of brilliance faintly visible within this rather drab four-parter, they are nevertheless only brief flashes of the potential Robert Holmes has.

To wit, I notice that this is the first time the Doctor explicitly remarks on not liking goodbyes. This is obviously something we've seen displayed implicitly more than once in the program so far, but it's a line that will be repeated many times in years to come. I also very much appreciated Zoe's cheeky remark about the Doctor being "almost" as clever as her! She continues to acquit herself very well this season. There's also a classically Holmesian bit of dark humor when the Doctor remarks that the entry chime of the Krotons' craft "sounds a bit like a dinner gong".

These aside, I had very little to keep my attention during this serial. The Gonds never quite captured my interest, and their world isn't sketched in a very convincing way. I'm afraid to say I've already forgotten the names of the guest cast, and am relying on the list of them on the wiki to tell you that Selris was probably the least boring of a boring lot. This story has unfortunately committed the same cardinal sin as The Dominators did just a few episodes ago: being dull.

I do appreciate that it's cute how the Krotons were designed by a fan through a contest. They're not quite as memorable as a certain other Blue Peter contest winner would be in 2006, but given the context of that one, I'm not sure if that memorability is a good thing! But the Daleks they certainly are not. As far as attempts to emulate the success of the Daleks go, this one seems particularly desperate.

It really is all rollercoasters this season, isn't it? We've had two brilliant serials, among the best the program has ever had, and two fantastic duds. Hopefully things will now start to pick up a little?

Before that, I'm obliged to take my next musical detour, this time for the year 1968.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 14 March 2021.)

The Rosemariners [Doctor Who, Diversion 13]

The Rosemariners by Donald Tosh

19 September 2012​

It was a pleasure returning to the world of Second Doctor audios again, and particularly to the Lost Stories range. Our last (and so far only) flirt with this range was for Farewell Great Macedon, which was now a rather long time ago. Although I enjoy Companion Chronicles and the newer boxsets just fine, there is something rather more charming about some of these Lost Stories, because they were originally conceived during the Classic run.

The Rosemariners is a little peculiar because it wasn't authored by one of the regular stable of Troughton writers, but rather by Donald Tosh, who script edited during John Wiles' tenure as producer. It's fitting that many aspects of the scenery of this story feel like a bit of a throwback, although I can't say that the arc of the story itself is. I think Tosh must have really liked the carnivorous Varga plants from Kembel, because a man-eating rose bush is one of the most striking parts of this story, even though we cannot see it.

Really, I was surprised after seeing the writer's credit that this wasn't a particularly dark story at all. I think my expectations were misplaced on account of the stories he'd script edited, but for all that I can detect the thumbprint of his writing style here, that aspect was missing. Clearly I misunderstood what part of the Wiles-Tosh team was responsible for that.

True enough, this story is breezy and enjoyable. I think the most apt descriptor would be to call it pleasant. Nothing especially bold or challenging, but pleasant. The atmosphere is spot-on for the era, and the music is actually reminiscent of the Radiophonic Workshop's output in a quite nostalgic way. Frazer's Troughton impression is shockingly good, and it really puts in mind just how many hours in the BBC studios they must have put in together.

The cast is fairly small and bare, but the two guest characters which we do focus the most on are pretty good ones. Professor Biggs is a good counterpart for the Doctor to bounce off of, as the scientists the Doctor meets usually are. His outrage about what's happened to Colbert is sold well, and at the end of the story I'm left wanting to see him again. Then there's Rugosa, another in the long tradition of well-spoken, coldblooded, menacing Doctor Who villains. He doesn't stand apart from that crowd in any exceptional way, but he serves this story very well. His ultimate comeuppance is quite a pleasing moment, because he's the one who ends up sealing his own doom. Colbert left less of an impression, but I did like the poetry of his Rosemariner replacement meeting the same sticky end as the human he replaced did earlier.

All in all, I'd recommend this one. It fits into this season well, and if you want more Jamie and Zoe, this is a good place to find it.

That squared away, I think I'll fix myself a salad, because The Krotons are being served up next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 14 March 2021.)